Jack tugged on his German Shepherd’s leash, telling him it was time to keep moving. Jack was a young man, around 17 years old, 6 foot tall. He was wearing black boots, blue jeans with a black leather belt, an unbuttoned red flannel shirt, and a white T-shirt on underneath it. His dog stopped to sniff the side of a large metal stair case against a wall of stacked cargo containers. The containers were stacked four high, and were placed into a large square, forming a kind of perimeter fence. The fence was taller than most of the trees around the area, giving them a great view. There were stairs dotted all along the containers in a big inner ring, allowing one to easily climb up to the top layer of containers. The top of the large wall had a crudely welded, yet sturdy guardrail on it. There also were stairs on either side of the entrance to the fence, which was also crude looking.

The entrance was only one cargo container high, and two thick. The entrance had been made by placing two cargo containers side by side with one another, at a ninety degree angle to the containers making up that face of the wall. The side panels of the two containers that touched had been cut out, and the two cargo containers were welded together and reinforced along the ceiling, making a wide entrance. The sides that had been cut out were used to make a large set of double doors for the entrance. There were the perimeter doors, which would open and allow you to drive into the doubled up container. Once those closed, the secondary doors would open, letting you inside the walls. Each set of doors had a large latch on them that had to be lifted by a winch system. Three other containers were stacked on top of the entrance to be a level height with the rest of the wall.

In the center of the ring, there was a three story house. Parked outside the house was a 1972 chevy camaro in red. The tires looked to be covered in a thin layer of dry dirt. There was also a blacked out jeep with dirt tires, parked right up next to the Camaro.

Jack was not alone in here. He was with his friend Danny. Not too long ago, about a year ago, Everyone on earth disappeared, with the exception of them. But, that’s not all that happened. Extinct species of various past era’s suddenly reappeared. The dinosaurs, the wooly animals and big cats of the ice age, even less dangerous things like the Trilobites of the precambrian. There were two major reasons why this wall had been put up, and there names were raptors and Tyrannosaurs. There were many types of raptor around this area, ranging from Deinonychus and Troodon, to Utahraptors and Dakotaraptors.

While it appeared that Tyrannosaurus Rex was the only member of the Tyrannosaurid family to be in their area, they had seen other members else where and there were other predators that were just as large. Things like Acrocanthosaurus and Giganotosaurus, or even things slightly smaller than T Rex, like Allosaurus or Ceratosaurus. It also helped to keep the large herbivores out. The last thing they needed was to walk outside and be impaled by a Triceratops horn, or a Stegosaurus tail spike. There was just a lot of shit in general that could kill them in a heartbeat, and they wanted to keep them out. Just to be safe, the perimeter fence had a series of high powered, motion activated lights. Like the kind they use to light football stadiums. These bright lights often drove the creatures away due to their brightness. Even the largest of animals squinted their eyes and wandered away under these lights.

Except for the Pterosaurs that is, they had the air advantage. But, even the largest of them didn’t want anything to do with Jack and Danny. They were simply too big for them. But the dog was a definite target so he wasn’t a loud out without being accompanied by one of the two.

Jack walked his dog back into the house, shut the door and let him off the leash.

“Danny! I think I’m gonna head out to look for survivors!” Jack shouted. Danny jogged down the stairs.

“Dude, give it a rest. I don’t think anyone is left out there. No way they would have survived this long.” Danny said. Jack rolled his eyes.

“People would say the same about us! We managed to set up that wall, and get supplies when we were sixteen.” Jack said. Danny sighed.

“I know. But that’s because we got lucky and we’re smart. We happen to be in a relatively prehistoric creature free area. And how many other people you know of that could’ve made a makeshift foundry? And, for christ sake, you taught yourself how to weld! We were more than able to handle this.” Danny said. Jack nodded.

“But there’s still a chance there may be people out there.” Jack pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Alright, look. This will be my last survivor hunt, okay? If I don’t find anyone, I’ll stop going out looking for more people.”

“What about supply runs?” Danny asked.

“Those we still need. There’s no way around those.” Jack said. Danny put his hands on his hips and nodded. He sighed.

“Alright. You can go.” Danny said. Jack smiled and exhaled. “But…” Danny grabbed an AKM and a flare gun. “You take these, grab a few mags of ammo, and dammit, you come back to me you hear? You’re my best friend, and you are all I have on this god-forsaken-planet. I lose you, and it’s just me and the damn dog.” Jack extended his hands and grabbed the rifle and flare gun.

“You have my word.” Jack said. He grabbed three magazines and started for the door. “I’m gonna need you to open the gates for me.”

“Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.” Danny said. As Jack stepped outside the door, Danny caught the dog staring at him with his tongue out. “The hell you lookin’ at.” He said to the dog. He shook his head and followed after Jack.

“I’m taking the Camaro.” Jack said. Danny chuckled.

“Of course you are. You love that thing.” He said.

“Why don’t you ever use the Camaro?” Jack asked. Danny shrugged.

“Just not into it like you. I’m more of a 74 Challenger guy.” Danny said. He walked up to a large control panel next to the gate, looked at the four button selection, and pressed the top button. The latch on the interior doors slowly lifted, and the winch wired as it lifted the several hundred pound latch. Once the latch had been rotated into a vertical position, it stopped with a shutter and a low metallic clunk. Danny released the button and walked over to the center of the double doors, where he found two large, vertical handles made out of metal tubing.

He grabbed the right hand door handle and started backward, pulling the door open. Once the door was opened as far as it could go, Danny approached the left hand door and repeated the process. With both doors open, he went back to the control panel and pressed the second button from the bottom. The latch to the exterior doors lifted as well, making a similar sound to the first one when it came to a stop. Danny took a moment to grab an M4 carbine and slung it over his shoulder. He approached the double exterior set of double doors, and opened them a bit. The space was only six inches wide, but it allowed him to peek through and check for danger.

Once he was certain there was nothing in sight, he sighed and shoved to doors open. He quickly retrieved his rifle from his shoulder and stood against the side wall of the entrance. Jack’s Camaro passed through the opening with five feet to spare on either side. With his rifle in hand Danny slowly crept out from the tunnel like entrance to grab the door handles and shut the outer doors.

Jack rolled up into the nearby town, scanning the buildings he had previously been too as he drove past. As he continued down the street, the buildings started to become less familiar. He hadn’t been to this section yet. He noticed a house up ahead with the front door wide open and decided to pull right up into the front yard. He parked the car right near the front door and got out with his AKM rifle. With the car blocking anything getting him from the rear, he crept up to the door. The lack of weather damage on the inside of the hose indicated that this door had been recently opened.

He examined the door handle for a moment. It didn’t have any claw or bite marks on it. In fact, it was a round door knob, so it was unlikely that anything without thumbs opened the door. That reduced the number of dangerous things it could have been that opened this door. It was now down to other people, primates, or other more violent hominids. Jack readied his rifle and walked through the door. Just to be safe, he shut the door behind him, so nothing could sneak up behind him. As soon as the door shut, he heard shuffling from somewhere in the house. The hairs on his body stood on end as he looked around, trying to pinpoint the source of the noise. Finally, he worked up the courage to say something.

“Hello?! Is anyone in here?! I don’t want to hurt anyone! I’m just looking for others!” He said. From a set of stairs leading to the den of the house, he heard a faint voice.

“Yeah right. Why would he bring a weapon then?” It said. It was so faint, Jack almost didn’t hear it.

“I heard that. I’ll put the weapon down, but I have good reason to carry this thing. I mean, have you seen what’s out there?” He said. He slowly put the rifle on the ground, stood back up, and put his hands in his pockets. “There. The weapon is down.” A young woman with rainbow colored hair peeked out from the stairs, looked at Jack, and then looked at the rifle. The girl nodded skeptically and slowly emerged from her hiding spot. She was wearing an unzipped light blue hoodie with a white undershirt on under it, black jeans, and blue converses. Jack sighed and smiled.

“Thank god I found you. My friend and I were beginning to think we were the only people left.” Jack said with a smile on his face. He stepped over his rifle and extended a hand to the girl. The girl flinched a bit, but she took his hand nonetheless and he shook it. “My name’s Jack. Jack Travis.”

“Thanks. My name’s… Rainbow Dash.” She said hesitantly. Her voice was a little scratchy, but it wasn’t annoying in anyway. “Say, you said you had a friend. Where is he?” Jack smiled and nodded.

“He stayed behind at our home base. I shuts himself in there a lot. I keep telling him that this area isn’t as dangerous as the others, but he doesn’t listen. Sometimes I worry he might go stir crazy.” Jack said. “So, are there any others? The more people we can find the better, y’know? Safety in numbers.” Rainbow Dash nodded.

“Yeah.” She said. “Hey guys! You can come out! He’s fine!” Suddenly, from the den, five other girls emerged. Two of them had pink hair. One had poofy pink hair, and she was wearing a pink T-shirt, blue jeans, and white tennis shoes. The other had very neatly brushed pink hair. She was wearing a yellow T-shirt and blue jeans that matched the first pink haired one. She had green sneakers on as well. One had blonde hair and freckles. She was wearing a similar outfit to Jack, but she had brown cowgirl boots on instead of black work boots. One had purple hair with neat curls in them. She had a pair of jean capris on, with a white T-shirt and purple converses. The last one had straight purple hair with a few highlights in the front of her hair. She was wearing a half sleeved purple shirt, black jeans, and red sneakers.

“Wow, okay, I was not expecting six of you. This is great.” Jack said with a smile. “What’re your name’s?” The blonde one stepped forward and extended an arm to him. He took her hand and she shook it.

“I’m Applejack.” She said. Jack immediately took note of her strong grip.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Jack Travis.” He said. The poofy haired one hopped over to Jack and pulled him into a big bear hug. “Okay then.” Jack wheezed.

“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie!” She said. Jack nodded and his back popped.

“Jack. Nice to meet you.” He wheezed. She released him and he wobbled a bit. After keeping his balance, he cleared his throat and straightened his back out. The girl with curly purple hair reached her hand out and placed a hand on her chest.

“My name is Rarity. How do you do, Darling?” She said. Jack gently took her hand and gave it a small shake. Rarity examined him and smiled. “My word. Jack, Darling, how do you get your hair to look so radiant?” She asked. Jack shrugged.

“I guess it’s just genetics. All I really do is wash my hair everyday.” He said. Rarity smiled.

“Well, in that case I do envy you.” She said. The second purple haired one stepped forward. Jack extended his hand to her and she took it.

“My name’s Twilight.” She said. Jack nodded.

“Nice to meet you.” He said. Then there was one last person he hadn’t been introduced to. She didn’t seem too keen on stepping forward to introduce herself. Jack looked at her and smiled.

“Hello. What’s your name?” Jack asked. She eeped and stepped back a bit. Rainbow Dash stepped forward and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

“Oh, this is Fluttershy. She’s… easily excitable.” Dash said, trying to be as polite as possible about it. “She’ll warm up to you eventually.”

“Alright. Well, It’s nice to meet you Fluttershy.” Jack said. He turned back to the rest of the group. “So, you guys wanna come back to base with me? This area is pretty empty of any big, threatening animals, but I wouldn’t recommend spending the night out here.”

“You sure you can take us all?” Rainbow asked.

“Yeah, I got a car parked outside. Limited number of seats though, so some of you are going to be sitting on someone’s lap.” Jack said. They all looked at each other confused.

“What’s a car?” Applejack asked. Jack raised an eyebrow.

“You know, an automobile? A metal box with four wheels and an engine to make it move? How on Earth do you not know what a car is?” Jack asked.

“What’s Earth?” Rainbow asked. Jack blinked, rubbed his eyes and looked back at her.

“The planet we’re on right now.” Jack said. Twilight stepped forward.

“So, you mean we’re not on Equis?” She asked. Jack’s face scrunched up.

“No. What’s Equis?” Jack asked. Twilight looked at the other girls with an equally surprised expression.

“Wait, if we’re not on Equis, then what kind of things were you talking about when you were talking about…” She pointed behind Jack. “Out there.”

“Well, There’s large early reptiles, proto mammals, dinosaurs, marine reptiles, large flying reptiles, ice age beasts. Stuff from our planet’s history that went extinct.” Jack said. “So, wait, if you aren’t from here, how did you get here?” Twilight sighed.

“This might be hard to believe, but I need you to know that I’m one-hundred percent telling the truth. We come from a place where the dominant race of the planet is made up of ponies. There are four kinds. Pegasi, earth ponies, unicorns, and alicorns. There are other races like griffons as well. Unicorns and alicorns can use their horns for magic. I was an alicorn. I was practicing a magic spell with these girls, when something happened. We ended up here, and we don’t know how.” Twilight said. Jack rubbed his chin for a second, and then he shifted his hands to his hips.

“Okay.” Jack said with a blank expression.

“You accepted that fairly easily.” Twilight said with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh, It’s still sinking in. I think that will take a day or two to really settle in there.” Jack said. He clapped his hands together. “Anyway, if you’ll follow me, I’ll show you to my car. Take you back to our home base. We’ll have a little Q&A, and then I think I’ll take a nap.” Jack picked up his rifle and opened the door. The girls followed him out the door and their eyes fell upon two things. One was the car, which was a lot better looking than they had pictured it, and the other was a giraffe sized Pterosaur walking across the front lawn.

“What is that?!” Dash asked. Jack looked up at it and then back to his car.

“It’s a Quetzalcoatlus. One of those large flying reptiles I told you about. Most people don’t know they actually aren’t dinosaurs.” Jack said. His brain still seemed to be shot. Rainbow looked at it nervously, but her stance said she was ready to fight it.

“It’s not gonna hurt us, is it?” She asked.

“Uh, not likely, no. We’re too big for them to eat. We wouldn’t fit down the hole in the top of their rib cage, you know, where the throat runs through? He’d choke to death if he ate one of us.” Jack said. He walked over to the passenger side door, opened it, and folded the passenger seat forward. “Don’t worry, the only thing he can do is peck at you. They’re kinda like big birds. Anyway, who want’s the passenger seat in the front?” They looked at each other for a moment and then dash raised her hand.

“I guess I’ll take it.” She said. Jack nodded.

“You’re getting in after everybody else than. But at least you won’t have anybody sitting in your lap. The seat opposite of this one Is mine, that’s the driver’s seat.” Jack said. “You five come around here and climb in back. Rarity, Fluttershy, you girls look like you’re the lightest, so you’ll be sitting in someone’s lap.” Rarity seemed to take that as a complement, as she had a smiled on her face after that. Applejack, Twilight and Pinkie Pie climbed in first, with Twilight and Applejack on the ends and Pinkie in the middle.

“Alright. Fluttershy, Rarity, you girls get in next.” Jack said. Rarity opted to climb in first, and she sat on Twilight’s lap on the left side of the car. Fluttershy got in next, albeit hesitantly, and sat on Applejack’s lap. Jack slowly lifted the passenger seat back up and clicked it into place.

“You’re up Dash.” Jack said as he walked around the car to the driver’s side. Dash climbed in and sat down. She took note of how Jack shut his door after he got in, and she did the same. Jack deposited his rifle into the gap between his seat and the door, and turned the set of keys he’d left in the ignition. The car whirred a bit, and then she kicked on. He clicked the car into first and slowly let on the gas. The sudden noise from the engine scared off the Quetzalcoatlus, as it launched itself into the air and started flapping its wings. The girl’s awed at the immense reptile’s sudden take off.

Jack turned the steering wheel all the way over, and turned the car clean around, heading for home. They cruised down the street with the windows down, going a nice 15 miles an hour. Twilight finally spoke, breaking the extensive silence.

“Is this thing supposed to be making this sound?” She asked. Jack nodded.

“Yup. Some cars sound different though. It has to do with the exhaust and the type of engine.” Jack said. Dash chuckled.

“I think It sounds nice.” She said. Jack smiled.

“At least someone gets it.” Jack said. He reached into one of the cup holders and pulled out a walkie talkie and pressed the button. “Hey Danny, you there?” He asked. He released the talk button and Twilight gave him a strange look.

“Why are you talking to a small box-” Twilight was cut off by Danny’s voice on the other side.

“Yeah, I’m here. What do you need?” Danny said. He pressed the button again.

“Gonna need those gates open. I’m comin’ back.” Jack said. He released the button and looked at Twilight through his rear view mirror. “This is a walkie talkie. You can walk and talk to people with it over short to medium ranges.”

“Are you being followed by anything?” Danny asked. Jack rolled his eyes.

“No. But I have a surprise. So just make sure those gates are open.” Jack said.

“On it.” Danny said. Jack cruised up a dirt road, where the facility appeared in the distance. Jack watched as the small figure of danny pushed the doors open and stood aside. Danny Squinted at the car, trying to make out what was inside. Once it got close enough, a big smile grew on Danny’s face. He put a walkie talkie to his mouth and pressed the button.

“Holy shit dude! You actually found people!” He said. Jack smiled as he cruised by Danny, into the facility. Jack stopped the car outside their house and got out. Rainbow Dash struggled with the handle a bit, but she got the door open. Rainbow Dash got out and Jack folded the passenger seat back down so everyone could get out. Despite finding people, like he’d wanted to for so long, he felt different than how he thought he should. Jack handed his rifle over to Danny and sighed.

“I’m going for a walk around the perimeter fence. It’s been an interesting day.” Jack said. Danny gave him a concerned look, but opted to just nod. Jack walked toward the perimeter and pulled out his phone. He liked to have it on him so he could listen to music, but he usually tried to conserve its battery life. Right now, he needed to relax. He clicked on a playlist and walked up a metal staircase. Dash saw him leave, and she had a feeling that something was off. From the way Danny looked at him, she could tell that this wasn’t very usual for him. Being the Loyal person she was, she wanted to help if there was a problem. While everyone was busy getting to know Danny, she snuck off and followed Jack up the stairs and onto the wall.

He was listening to an instrumental soundtrack, which contained various classical instruments. Rainbow walked up beside him and smiled.

“What’cha listenin’ too?” She asked. Jack ran his hand through his hair and sighed.

“Ironically enough, it’s the soundtrack to a show called Walking With Dinosaurs.” He said. “You know, I used to dream about this kind of thing as a kid. A land filled with prehistoric creatures? That was little me’s make believe paradise. But, I never realised how dangerous that would be back then.” He paused to enjoy the view.

“Well, how did you see something like this? Whatever this is.” Rainbow asked.

“I don’t know. I guess in my head I always imagined myself being a passive observer. Where nothing around me would have any clue I was there, even if I was a few feet from them. But now, I know ninety percent of what’s out there would like to kill me for one reason or another. It’s kinda dealt a crushing blow to that dream.” He said. He leaned his elbows against the metal railing along the top of the wall. “I guess now that there are other people around, I’m both nervous, and excited.” Rainbow leaned her back against the railing and nodded.

“Why are you nervous?” Rainbow asked.

“Well, I’m worried for the safety of you girls.” He said. He ran his hand through his hair and slowly released a large amount of air from his lungs. “This world is now filled with dangerous creatures from our planet’s past. You girls have no idea what any of this is, and it could get you all killed. I bet you want to get home too, but I have no clue how to get you back there. I just wasn’t prepared for something like this. Always just figured that they would know everything that’s going on like me.”

“Danger? Are you kidding?! Me and my friends get into all kinds of dangerous situations!” She said. Jack gave her a concerned look.

“What?” He asked.

“We’re always fighting some magical supervillain, or some dangerous mystical creature we’ve never heard of before. It’s like every other week man! We can’t get a break!” She said. She gave Jack a confident smirk and chuckled. “Besides, danger is my middle name.” Jack nodded, and he put on a small, yet very fake smile.

“Just, make sure you know this difference between dangerous, and suicidal. Danny and I have lost everyone, except each other. We don’t want to have to bury anyone else.” He said. He nodded toward the stairs and sighed. “Let’s get going. We still have a Q&A to get through. Then I can take a nap.”

Author's Note

Next chapter will get to explaining something about what's happened and answer some questions about their base.

Edit: feel free to point out any mistakes you find.